Page 4 of Big Island Moonlight
“You made these?” Emma reached into the bag and picked up one of the blocks; it gleamed in the sunlight. “They’re amazing!”
Keith grinned affectionately. “They’re just blocks, Em.”
“They’re perfect.”
For a moment, as his eyes held hers, the rest of the world faded out of her awareness. Keith leaned towards her, not seeming to realize what he was doing – and then he stepped away.
“Tuesday?” he asked. “Community garden? I was thinking we could harvest the last of the turnips for the food bank and then plant more root vegetables.”
The world around them rushed back in, and Emma nodded. “See you then.”
Her eyes followed him as he wove back through the crowd and out of sight.
“Giiirl,” Lani said under her breath, coming to stand next to her again.
“What?” Emma huffed.
“The electricity between you two just about burned this place down.”
“We’re just friends.”
Lani laughed. “Okay. Sure.”
The crowd thinned as parents took toddlers home for nap time, and before long it was down to their core group. Thebirthday boy crashed right there in the middle of it all, sound asleep on a yoga mat in the middle of the lanai.
When it was just family, Ethan and Fern sat Juniper down at an empty table. Emma was a few feet away, collecting dirty plates.
“Fern and I have been talking,” Ethan said, and then trailed off. Fern gave his hand an encouraging squeeze. “We’re wondering if you’d like to move into the apartment downstairs.”
Juniper’s hazel green eyes went wide.
“I know you’re happy living with Em,” he continued with an apologetic glance towards his twin, “but climbing those stairs is just going to keep getting harder. Here you’d be on the ground floor, and you would still have family right here to help you when the baby comes.”
There was a ground-floor bedroom at the Kealoha place too, but Emma pressed her lips together and kept collecting plates. If Juniper wanted to use the stairs as an excuse for changing houses – if she wanted to further repair her relationship with her father – Emma would miss her, but she wouldn’t say anything against it.
“I don’t know,” Jun said slowly.
“Think about it,” Ethan urged. “You don’t have to make a decision now. But if those stairs get to be too much, well… you always have a place here.”
“Thank you. I will. Think about it, I mean.”
The three of them exchanged strained smiles, then got to their feet and joined Emma in party cleanup. The mood was strangely sober after the cheer and success of the day.
They’d had a long, quiet interlude these past few months… but Emma had the feeling that this newfound peace wouldn’t last forever. Change was coming. She just hoped that it was for the best.
2
Juniper
There was nothing that Juniper loved more than driving north at dawn. Well, not ‘driving’ so much as being a passenger princess, relaxing in her seat with a hot chai as they coasted through the incredible scenery of the Big Island’s eastern coastline.
If they timed it right, the sun crested the horizon just as they were driving past Hilo Bay. Fresh dawn hues of pale blue and gold greeted them as they drove across the bridge and up the coast. After that, it was a solid hour of monkeypod trees and rolling green hills on their way up to Honoka‘a.
The endless beauty of Hawai‘i made Juniper’s heart ache. She hadn’t thought that anything could surpass the golden hills and towering redwoods of central California… but the islands were something else entirely. The wild beauty cracked her heart open and filled it with gratitude.
They chatted easily as they drove north, Cody at the wheel and Juniper staring out across the vast blue Pacific. Betweencollege classes and a patchwork collection of part-time jobs, Cody worked so much that they hardly saw each other anymore. The long drive to the market in Honoka‘a was their weekly catch-up session.
“My dad asked me to move in with him,” Jun said.
